#If anyone wants to know

[darkmodepls]

Extended Team Phantom

I love the classic trio and seeing Jazz and Valerie added to the roster, but I also love seeing some fresh faces fighting the good fight. Here's some more people I always picture when I'm thinking about how the team would evolve over the years.

Wes Weston - obviously, you've got to include the fandom's collective child. Once they finally drill the importance of Danny’s secrets into his head, he's actually great at misdirection. It turns out there's a slight memetic effect to the information he spreads. It causes people to also disbelieve any evidence of Wes's theory they stumble across later. The effect lasts somewhere between 1-2 week

Kyle Weston- Kyle is actually his middle name. He did not escape the Weston naming tradition, but he told his kindergarten teacher that his middle name was actually his first name. From that point forward, he learned that: the more outrageous his lies, the more power they held. Kyle may be ridiculously laid back, but that doesn't change the fact that he's been academically tied with Jazz since 1st grade. He knows EVERYTHING that goes on in Casper High and has been covering for Team Phantom ever since the 1st Lunch Lady fight. Good luck getting him to admit to any of this. Danny is still convinced Kyle thinks the moon is made of cheese.

Philip "Spike" Wilkins - the only adult member of the team and the only one with first aid training. Spike was a senior in his first appearance and has since graduated and got his paramedic's certification. One nasty fight led to Spike learning Danny’s identity and calling Jazz to pick him up. The absence of his piercings (can't wear those at work) cause Jazz to not recognize him at first, but that moment of confusion was soon replaced with relief. Spike has been Jazz's best friend and pseudo big brother since she was in 3rd grade. It's not a problem for him to expand that to all of Team Phantom. Looks can be deceiving and the studs and mohawk don't change the fact that Spike is the true Team Mom of the Extended Team Phantom.

[mrthful]

a dave maybe!

heres your personal dave delivery

[rip-headphones-users]

My Headcannons for how Infected and Kasper operate

Buckle up, this is a long post. Thinking about how characters function in relation to the world around them is basically a hobby of mine, so expect more. (I have others planned for both lampert and unpleasant at the very least)

(Not ship related) (angst heavy sorry)

Kasper’s infection is a brain-rooted/cognito-hazardous parasite

He got it after purposely ignoring a chainmail curse, both as a sort of “fuck around and find out” as well as an outright form of self-harm/self-sabotage.

The parasite is the one that primarily controls all the conscious actions of infected, while kasper now acts sub-consciously.

Its less of a split-mind situation and more of a Venom + Eddie or Gundam + Pilot situation they are two separate entities inhabiting the same body that can potentially act at the same time

It just so happens that the parasite from the chainmail curse has VERY similar desires/interests/motivations to Kasper, so the host/parasite relationship actually works very well.

Infected accidentally makes Kasper lose a decent chunk of weight after it takes over, due to it not being able to feel when Kasper is hungry and forgetting to let him eat

Kasper and Infected can be addressed separately (Lampert, UnpleasantGradient, Folly and maybe a few others know this) and Kasper tends to choose not to respond due to his own apathy, instead opting to let Infected take the lead.

Being able to respawn/no permadeath on the regretevator is the reason why Kasper opted to infect himself, as he saw it as the next closest thing to death/suicide.

Allowing infected to enter his mind has radically reduced Kasper’s lifespan. (He’d be lucky if he made it to his late 30’s)

His nose bleeds when Kasper and infected try to act at the same time

Infected is only transferrable via chainmail

Infected doesn’t feel any of the bodily necessities that kasper has, so its not uncommon for him to collapse of exhaustion, dehydration, hunger, ect. If someone doesn’t remind him.

Infected doesnt feel pain either

Kasper feels it though. A lot.

In fact the whole process of infected entering his mind was incredibly painful as is.

Infected isn’t the reason why things in the elevator/on his own body suddenly lose their texture, neither of them know why that happens now.

They personally aren’t physically effected by it and both find it cool, so neither are bothered.

It’s probably just the result of infected’s malware (thats only technically supposed to effect machines) managing to attach itself to a human. Or maybe Kasper could do that and never previously knew. Who knows. ;)

Kasper/infected can phase through objects that are textureless, including parts of his own body. Anything else will collide as it normally would, and take damage.

Infected will always talk with full leetspeak, (L13k D1$) while Kasper will only have one letter/number substitution (L1ke Th1s)

UG unintentionally named infected that. Basically just looked at Kasper, who had just let a parasite into his mind, and looked at the chainmail virus on his computer, and it went “huh… Bro’s Infected”

Bro is, in fact, infected.

[neolesbian]

i know no one on this site cares about sports but the runner who kept bringing yugioh cards to his meets is now officially the fastest man alive

[slytherpuff-conversations]

*Watching film*

Hufflepuff: I’m sat here watching being like ‘this scene is quite emotional’ and out of the corner of my eye I can just see you playing with playdoh

Slytherin: Leave my playdoh alone… it gives me something to fidget with

[shiesie]

I’m gonna be honest, I never used to be much of a Jonsa shipper when I first got into AoIaF, purely because I think that Sansa can do better than any man in the series, but after seeing how nasty certain parts of the fandom and the shipping community can be to Sansa I’ve decided to ship it out of spite and pettiness

Jonsa Rights 🫡🫡🫡

[drivingsideways]

The Matchmakers (2023)- Review

A funny, smart youth fusion sageuk? Rowoon- whom I swear to god I would not have been able to pick out of a lineup of idol actors 2 weeks ago-  making me CRY in the year of our Lord 2024???? You could knock me over with a feather right now. 

Writer Ha Soo-jin and PDs Hwang Seung-gi and Kim Soo-jin did not drop the ball even once over 16 episodes- a true feat in kdrama land. More than the actors, it was the impressive lock-step of the creative/production team that got me in this one. I'm trying to put into words the oddness of it after: apparently I can be persuaded to buy a product (heterosexual romance kdrama version) that I would usually avoid, as long as it crosses a threshold of custom-made-for-me features.  I know I've been had, but it's done with such sly charm and madcap energy that I'm not even the least bit angry about it. 

This isn't to say that the drama isn't thoughtful: it is, very much. In an era when falling birthrates and fascism are making governments across the world decide that women have probably had too much freedom and are actively enacting policies that violate women's fundamental rights over their personhood, The Matchmakers is a tongue-in-cheek response that's deadly serious about its fundamental idea: that women are individuals who will and should act to preserve the sanctity of that gift of life.  

At the start of the series, its main antagonist- Park Ji young in an arresting role and performance- says "If a Nation is a tree with deep roots, then those roots are its WOMEN." Of course, this is a delightful statement on many levels- starting with the sheer brazenness with which the joke that sends up one of the most acclaimed and beloved sageuks is made; it also situates the character in opposition with the morality of Confucian-era Joseon of the series where women were to be kinda, sorta seen and definitely not heard etc. and makes us instantly- in our post-feminist complacence- sympathetic to her. But wait: as the series unravels its many, many, many threads, we begin to see the sleight of hand. For this Strong Woman Character ™  is, after all, preaching an old and well-worn moral code: for the woman, The Family is Everything. Unless you’ve been under a rock for a few years, it might have come to your notice that this Idea ™ is being repackaged and tik-tokified up as neo-conservatism and fascism gains ground once more in our feral capitalist hellscape. The show is full of women who've had to or are making choices for the Family (survival, honour, future)- at the cost of their own happiness and identities because that is their Fate. Even Madam Park, widely acknowledged as the most brilliant mind in Joseon- is not exempt from this; taking- limited- control of a system designed to grind you down doesn’t mean freedom, only fear and eternal vigilance. For me, it was the perfect choice and characterization of the villain that set this show apart from the others of its genre- that told me that it had something to say after all.

That said, I don’t think The Matchmakers is particularly radical or subversive- here’s where the perfect commodification of kdrama and the show’s chosen genre blunts it-terrible things happen in families and to women in particular, yes, but we’re never allowed to contemplate those things too long; we’re being distracted by the next flourish in the shenanigans-filled plot. Heterosexual marriage is reconfigured but never seriously rejected; queer people exist but are not happy. Perhaps it takes a Jeong Seo Kyung (Little Women, 2022) or Lim Dae-hyung/ Jeon Go-woon (LTNS, 2024) to smash that particular barrier- but in its defense, The Matchmakers does what all love stories  set out to do and does it well- which is to reaffirm our belief in Love as the ultimate liberation; both the weapon and balm of our fragile lives. And it does, very firmly, plant its feet on the side of liberating the women who each find their courage to reassert their selves as the most necessary and valuable possession in a society which only sees value in their uteruses.

Tl; dr: watch it for its delightful women, its Wodehouse-ian shenanigans in regency romance/sageuk aesthetic, its quietly moving love story about letting love and life surprise you over and over again, and yeah, I guess you should also watch it for Rowoon being a “disgruntled pelican” as correctly described by @elderflowergin.

[ddlcbrainrot]

(this is my first time animating pls be nice)

tw : suicide

[thuviel]

I'm 1 month post op!

A whole month of recovery whooo! Gonna share a bit of how it went down below:

Week 2

I stopped all meds at this point, even painkillers were unnecessary

I started sleeping flat on my back now, no longer elevated

Felt muuuch better after stopping the antibiotics I was allergic to, could actually sleep now

Day 14 as I went to shower I had a bit of a nipple disaster. My bandages had slid down in the night and the tape got stuck to my nipples. Gently removing it did not work and it came all the way off in the shower, ripping off a good chunk of scab with it. Like half the nipple scab got removed and it was bleeding, it looked like the actual nipple bud got ripped away as well. I panicked but the clinic said it was fine

Week 3

The nipples slowly healed from the disaster, most of the wound got covered by a new scab, there were some issues with the wound getting stuck to the gauze but it wasn't too bad

I started getting back my range of motion and had so little discomfort at moving that I had to be very conscious of nor strecthing too far or lifting too heavy

The only pain I felt at this point was the occasional tug if I went too far or an occasional ache from healing

At the end of week 3 the big insicions had almost healed, only the corners that I end up moving the most when I stretch too far were still stubbornly bleeding a bit

Week 4

I started working this week, it was super rough at first. Mostly I was exhausted but it was also tough to do my work with all my limitations

The incisions healed all the way now, some scabs left here and there but no bleeding anymore

The nipple scabs started kinda shrinking back on the right side, revealing what looks like pink areola underneath, it feels like it will fall off soon ish

I was able to strech even further without discomfort

The swelling was almost all the way gone, just some minor swelling left

Was starting to be able to lie on my side more and more and at the end of the week I could kinda sleep on my side in short intervals

At the end of week 4 I started wearing my binder only half of the day

[soulfullives]

antiexemplu is literally the romanian sirius anthem

[dragon-phoenix-along]

Found out yesterday some people don’t know what blood types are,

Rb with your blood type to restore my faith in humanity

[dcismypassion]

Do you ever just make a Word document of your favourite characters and hope that someone, anyone, will ask you about them. Just so you can be like, 'Oh, yeah! If you want to know more of my interpretation of this character and the major plot beats and character development, here's a neatly organised file to help you! I hope you'll come back to me with your questions. I will gladly elaborate.'

If yes, how do you subtly make people ask you about those characters.

[wynns-wonderful-pixel-paradise]

Some seasonal Neopets greeting cards, captured in gif form for your viewing pleasure!

[kitashousewife]

watching hallmark

[microsofttothemax]

since the playlist shuffling game is going around i figure i expose my music taste

i have a WIDE range of artists i love so here they are catagorized

80s

a-ha

queen

van halen

def leppard

tears for fears

90s

blink-182

pearl jam

green day

snoop dogg

backstreet boys

2000s

taio cruz

usher

lady gaga

rihanna

glass animals

arctic monkeys

manēskin

bad suns

marina

olivia rodrigo

raynes

beyoncé

raury

[aeternallis]

I was reading this vent post on Reddit about an Asian OP's frustrations when it comes to seeing cultural context and nuance be misinterpreted by white/western fans and how it often clearly shows in fanfiction, yknow? The topic they were specifically talking about was corporal punishment, and how its prevalence in Asian households are often easily dismissed by western fans as a collective moral failing as a whole.

And surprising no one (and maybe cuz it’s Reddit) the comment section—while starting out polite and decently enough—gradually descended into accusations of "abuse apologist" and "just because it's culture doesn't mean it's right" and "gee, thanks for justifying my abuser" etc etc. There was some bad-faith takes on OP's post, and it turned into a petty group convo that had no semblance of depth in the end.

Maybe it's just me, but imo, there is often this contradicting mindset I see in (English-speaking) Asian media fandoms where people on one hand are encouraged to do their research in regards to the cultural context of the media they’re consuming, since by not understanding it, there is some level of cultural erasure going on.

But that on the other hand, hoping for people to have some understanding of said cultural context of the media they're consuming is in and of itself a form of fandom policing to a certain degree, when the purpose of fandom (and fanfiction) is escapism and doing whatever the hell you want.

Faced with this contradiction, imo it shouldn’t be any surprise that POC find it hard to speak up in a fandom, let alone find some semblance of unity when it comes to talking about context and nuance.

Corporal punishment in and of itself is a very touchy subject for a lot of people; the topic can be very triggering, and conversation around it can hit personal sore spots, especially when people have strong opinions in regards to the matter. In that sense, the conversation’s descent into chaos on that Reddit post was outright inevitable.

On the other hand, I can also understand OP’s frustrations wholeheartedly. It already sucks when you see a character from your cultural background be warped by western fans (and in some cases, villainized) and on a wider scale, the nuance of the story is either disregarded or turned on its head completely.

Like, I don't deny that corporal punishment—having gone through it myself whilst growing up (my Filipina mother's favorite weapons of choice were the broom, the hanger, and the belt)—did some damage to my psyche as a child. I don't deny that it's a form of domestic abuse and under any circumstances, should not be tolerated.

Due to my own experiences in life, I'd like to think I'd healed from all that (and even tease my parents occasionally about it). So for me personally, it was never something I questioned within my own family household or within my own environment, because of the fact that in a typical Asian household, corporal punishment was generally seen as something necessary for the betterment of the child.

In fact, there were moments in my childhood were my parents had been horrified by the thought of some of my friends boldly talking back to their parents, since they couldn't comprehend how a child can disregard that boundary between parent and child, the respect that parents take for granted from their children.

It was definitely a clash of cultures when we moved here in the US.

Specifically in regards to corporal punishment, its historic role as being a form of traditional discipline, its roots in Confucian philosophy, and how it’s seen/viewed in Asia within the context of its ever-changing cultural landscape—is in and of itself a behemoth subject that’s way too complicated to go over in one vent post and more often than not, overlaps with one's own traumas and personal issues.

And yes, it is ever-changing. Culture is never static, and evolves like everything else that is subject to time.

It’s harder to speak up within a fandom space in these instances, especially when such misunderstandings may have already become widely accepted fanon, yknow? (And as we in fandom know, talking shit about the fanon is as close as one will come to getting crucified). More than that, it's harder to speak up when one is talking about it through the vehicle of fanfiction, as fanfiction is a medium in which fans can and should be allowed to experiment.

It's even harder to speak up when these legitimate concerns are brushed off as petty and ridiculous arguments to bring up in the first place.

It's a luxury, I think, to be able to think this way.

And Idk, from my own personal experience being in fandom for 20+ years and as a POC, there’s always been this sort of delicate balancing act and subsequent reality check in that for the most part, white/western fandom is welcoming of learning cultural context and nuance only in so far and as long as it doesn't contradict their own biases. A lot of it comes off as performative sentiment, hence the reason why a lot of -isms are rampant in fandom the way they are.

Now, this isn’t to say it’s entirely the whole of western fans and the English-speaking side of fandom. Many are genuinely open to learning about new cultures and ways of thinking, and are humble enough to admit their internal biases. Yet still, there are those who aren’t or only ever pretend to be interested, so long as they can keep their safe space and their feelings, not to mention whatever sort of influence they think they may or may not have in fandom, insulated and protected.

Inevitably, when a POC speaks about their culture in said fandom and how it connects to the culture of said piece of media the fandom is built around (and especially when said POC comes from the very same culture in question), it can also at the same time act as a deconstruction of biases that a fandom has built up through certain headcanons and ideas that the community at large have subconsciously put on a pedestal.

I think this is a large part of the reason why particular fandoms can become overprotective and even downright hostile when POC choose to speak up, because their bubble of fandom escapism is perceived to be in danger.

This isn't meant to inflame anyone's defenses; after all, it's totally understandable that no one likes it when their biases are indirectly called out, and no one likes to be made to feel ignorant.

No one likes it when someone rattles the cage of a seemingly thriving fandom.

I guess at the end of it all, I think there's definitely some lack of humility and a level of self-entitlement at times from the western fandom at large, when it comes to consuming media content not from their own cultural setting.

And it’s this sort of fandom landscape that POC must navigate carefully, lest the culture and its integrity of said piece of media is almost entirely warped, all the while POC try to have a voice within a community in which its very nature is determined to keep those who can speak about nuance and context quiet and subdued.